


Your Favorite Quartermaster

by Pastel_Teacups



Category: James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fem!Q
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-01
Updated: 2013-02-23
Packaged: 2017-11-23 04:46:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/618228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastel_Teacups/pseuds/Pastel_Teacups
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's three weeks after Skyfall, and Q finds out that not only is Raoul Silva alive and well, but he is seeking revenge. And Q seems, in Silva's eyes, like the best way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. I'm back, my darlings.

**Author's Note:**

> (This is Fem!Q, so fair warning :3 I do hope you enjoy, however!)

"Checkmate." Q says to the speaker that is immediately transitioned to 007's earpiece.   
"Sorry?" He asks, and Q can see the question is directed not only at her but the woman sitting across from him.   
"The woman across from you is about to win the chess game. Both she and her bodyguards will try to kill you. There's a blind spot you can escape through to your right, but watch out for the waitress holding the tray, I think she might be a hitwoman as well." Q filled James in, typing in a few codes on her laptop.   
"Right." She hears, watching in part worry as the woman makes her move, mutters "Checkmate," and pulls the concealed gun from her bag and pointing it at where Bond is sitting, Where he was sitting, anyways, because he's managed to spring out of the seat, take out a bodyguard who tried to block his way and the waitress holding the tray, rushing out.   
"They're pursuing. Get out of there." Q said.   
"Worried about me?" Q hears from the speaker and she rolled her eyes. Always the joker.   
\--  
A few cups of Earl Grey later, Q heads back to her flat, another crisis diverted thanks to James' guns and her keyboard. She turns an alley to take a shortcut, when she hears a bang. She turns to look for the what sounded like a gunshot, when something is brought to her head and her world goes black, and the last thing she sees is a pair of feet and ghostly white teeth.   
\--  
She wakes tied to a chair, at which point Q wonders what new villain of Bond's that they'd have to deal with next. But in a few short moments, her question is answered when the door to her small and almost airless grey cell. Her glasses are cracked, so it makes everything seem a bit off, but there is absolutely no mistaking the blonde hair and neon-white teeth, even though she never saw them in person.   
"Silva." She said, her voice cracking and making her sound much weaker than she'd intended.   
"Q," He said, taking another chair from the corner of the room and dragging it over to her, sitting just across from her. Q could reach out and hit him if her hands weren't tied.   
"I thought you were dead." She said, trying to shake a piece of her mussed hair out of her face. Silva reached over and brushed it away, his warm hand lingering on her face longer than it should have. Q had to resist a shutter, wanting to have at least a bit of her dignity.   
"Oh, I was stabbed. Not killed." He said, shaking his head and smirking at the girl's obvious discomfort. "No need to be so frightened, dear." He said.   
"I have plenty a reason to be afraid. You took out a whole train, hacked me back, and nearly killed, well, everyone." She reminded.   
"Not such a clever girl," Silva remembered, smiling at the memory. "I've returned to finish what I've started." He said.   
"And what's that?" Q asked, raising an eyebrow. Silva stood, tired of this meeting. Just as the door was nearly open, Silva turned and smiled.   
"I'm back, my darling."


	2. You could learn to hack as I hack.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Silva attempts to sway Q using his persuasion and cunning skills.

Q loses track of the days. Silva unties her but leaves her locked in the room, barricaded from the outside world by a concrete door and lock. Once in a while somebody will drop by and slide a plate of food or a glass of water towards her and then locking it again. Silva doesn't visit again, until Q is laying on the ground and chewing on the inside of her thumb. He sat down in the chair that he had sat in first, which had been moved around and turned, given that Q had nothing better to do than rearrange the few items of furniture in the small room.   
"Why am I here?" Q asked, turning and staring at him from where she had been lying.   
"A little bit of... insurance, if you will." He replied, smirking down at her, more like she was a meal than a person.   
"Insurance?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.   
"Yes. You get captured, Bond comes to save you, and then he's trapped like a rat."   
"Last rat standing. Two rats in a barrel." She remembered, shaking her head.   
"Not such a clever girl." He added fondly. "You could learn to do that here, you know."  
"Learn to do what?"   
"Hack like I can. Nobody can."   
"I can."   
"Not like me." He said, shaking his head.   
"Why would I want to? I'd just become one of your henchwomen that will likely die." Q said bitterly.   
"No, no, no." Silva tsked. "You could be so much more, you could learn to hack like I can."   
"I don't want to." She said, pulling herself into a sitting position and leaning against the wall.   
"Why is that?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.   
"Because I don't want to work for you." She said harshly.   
"What is so bad? It's not as though I'll tell you lies like Mum will." He said, nodding a bit in almost understanding.   
"You're awful. That's all." She said simply.   
"Fine." Silva said, his voice hardening and he stood, leaving the room, and leaving Q in stony silence.


	3. Come to save me, have you?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which 007 makes a tight escape, with Q in tow.

Q doesn't know how long it was since her last meeting or human contact of any kind. [i]Has it been minutes or days?[/i] She wants to ask herself, but doesn't, because she knows there must be a camera in here somewhere, and she doesn't want to become the one that goes crazy after being enclosed too long. SO she stays silent, her knees drawn to her chest, her cracked glasses sitting on the ground next to her as she leans her chin on her knees and closes her eyes. She doesn't sleep, however, and instead tried to distract herself by thinking of work. Codes. Computers. Everything having one answer. Never uncertain. She leaned her head back and opened her eyes, staring at the wall. If she was asked to, she could probably rattle off the location and deepness of every crack in that wall, along with the new ones she'd put it one what felt like an afternoon, when she threw a chair at the wall. Not to escape, not out of rage, just to see how many more cracks she could give the wall. Three. She got three cracks in the wall. She closed her eyes, and thought of the nice white area that was her office, no noises there except the other keyboards typing behind her, the occasional sip of her tea or murmur as they compared codes, but Q never changed. She was always typing, only stopping to push the glasses farther up the bridge of her nose or to stare at the screen a moment longer to process its contents.   
\--  
Nobody else comes to her cell. The eerie silence the absence of people brings is almost too much for Q to bear.   
\--  
Q becomes painfully aware that her prison is sound-proof, because she can't hear anything outside the doors, and nobody seems to hear her when she screams. So she doesn't. She stops talking or crying or coughing. Somebody finally comes in to bring her food, but he falls to the ground and another man is behind him.   
"007?" Q asked, disbelief flooding her voice, which cracks from lack of use.   
The agent walks into the room, using the dead man to prop the door open so it won't lock them both in. He kneels next to Q and looks her over. "Are you alright?" He asks her, worry creasing his voice.   
"I'm fine." Q said, sliding her glasses on and letting Bond help her into a standing position, her stubborn limbs cracking from not being moved in days, weeks, however long it was.   
"How long have I been missing?" She asked, following the agent as he stalked down a hallway, sending a worried look over his shoulder.   
"It's been two months." He told her, sending a shock to Q.   
"Two months?" Even she had not anticipated being gone that long. "Yeah. Wait." He said, pulling her into a door way, his gun poised and ready for fire. Q didn't move from her place next to him, biting her lip nervously. A few guards rushed past them, both in the direction of her cell. The double-oh took her hand and led her out.   
"Come to rescue me, have you?" She asked, smiling just a bit.   
"Right." He said.


	4. The last two rats and a mouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there is a stand down, and Silva gives yet another metaphorical speech.

They run, or Q's equivalent of running, which is moving her stiff limbs enough to trail behind Bond. She'd never been the most athletic, ever since her primary school years, when she trailed behind the more invested runners. Shed've much rather sat in the shade and read a book than play tag with the others, despite her skinny frame. So she trailed after Bond, and nearly ran into him when he abruptly stopped in the middle of a hallway. She was much too short to look over his shoulder and evaluate his reason for stopping.   
"Bond, what the he-" But she was silenced with a finger to her lips.   
"Well, well, well, Mr. Bond. We meet again." Said a voice that made Q cringe.   
"I killed you," Bond said, not looking away from the former double-oh in front of him as he stepped just a bit closer to the two.   
"Not at all. Thanks to your somewhat inferior aim, all I earned was a collapsed lung." She could hear Silva's smile, and heard another step.   
Q couldn't stand it anymore. She peered around James, and about fainted when she saw the gun in his hand, immediately pointing at her once she was visible.   
"Ah, I see you've found the Quartermaster. She was doing no good to me, anyways. Simply a way to draw you here, which has clearly been successful. And to think you didn't care about anyone."   
"You leave her out of this," Bond said, uncharacteristically so as he used his free hand to gently push Q behind him again, obscuring her view once again. Q heard the sinister laugh.   
"The last two rats," He remembered, stepping ever closer to the pair. "And a mouse. Pathetic. Come out, little Q, or I'll be forced to shoot your inferior protection."   
Q didn't move a muscle, knowing that James would only pull her back if she tried. But she heard the safety of a gun click off and she stepped out from behind him, ignoring Bond's look.  
"There you are." He said, and she was staring down his gun. He was closer than she had anticipated. Much closer. She almost cringed, but managed to keep herself as composed as one in her situation could be.   
"What, now that M's dead you have to find another person to kill?" Bond asked, and Q could only imagine the eyebrow raising that Bond was probably engaging at that particular moment.   
"That old bitch has nothing to do with her," Silva said, moving the gun just low enough, near her heart, to where he could hook his fingers under her chin and force her to look up at him. "Sad." He muttered, pulling the trigger.   
-  
The bullet hit her in the shoulder, so close to the heart she thought it would end immediately, but it didn't. She came crashing to the ground, looking up at the ceiling as she covered her left shoulder with her right hand, wincing and struggling, trying not to scream. But she did. Her scream rang out through the hall, making Silva laugh and Bond's forehead crease with worry. But in a second, Bond had his own gun trained on Silva just after the worry had passed. It was still there, but she knew Bond covered it with sarcasm and hatred. Just his way of worrying.   
"Go on, take me in. I'd love to meet the new M," Silva said, dropping the gun and placing his hands on his head.   
"Don't mind if I do," Bond said, speaking something into his earpiece that Q didn't hear, because she had closed her eyes and let the world fade.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry that I haven't written anything in such a long time! I've been terribly busy lately, but I'm hoping to get a lot done this weekend! Thanks to everyone who actually took the time required to read this!!!


	5. The Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which there Q is quite unhealthy (having not visited a doctor in two years,) and proves to be in serious trouble.

Q wakes up from a sedated sleep three days later, in the hospital wing of MI6. She's stitched up and should be fine, but when she opens her eyes four pairs of eyes are staring down at her, all filled with worry.   
"What?" Q asks, groggily. She makes a move to sit up, but Bond gently pushes her back onto the bed.   
"Q," He asked, his voice sounding like a mixture of anger and worry. "When was the last time you went to a doctor?"   
"When I first started here, my medical examination." Q said, after thinking a moment. A doctor's office never had been her favorite place in the world.   
"That's dangerous, Q." Eve said, crossing her arms over her chest and raising her eyebrows.   
"I'm fine." Q said.   
"No, you're not," A doctor said, looking down at a chart. "We nearly had to perform an amputation on your arm, and the bullet released some sort of poison that is currently making its way to your lungs, so that explains why you're not breathing very well."   
Q rolled her eyes. No wonder she didn't like the doctor's. They didn't sugar-coat anything. "That sounds lovely." She deadpanned.   
"We're working to get it out, but it seems like a long-shot. You very well could be dead tomorrow, or you could live another fifty years." The doctor said, shrugging as he looked up from the chart. "There's really no way of telling until it spreads and kills you, unless we find a way to get it out. You'll be doing a lot of your work from this bed now, in fact, most of it."   
Q groaned and slumped. "I don't want to stay here," She mumbled.   
"Pity." The doctor said, before leaving.   
"No sympathy at all." Q mumbled, trying to shift herself but cringing in pain. It was hard to breathe. Or maybe that was just because he mentioned it.   
"I truly am sorry, Q." M said, looking down at her. "But it's for the best. You'll only die faster if you're up and about."   
M left a while later, along with Moneypenny. Bond did't leave, however, and only sat down in the chair next to her bed.   
"I don't want to stay here," She repeated quietly to him, moving (despite the pain it brought) her head into his lap. He ran his fingers through her dark hair, looking down at her.   
"I know. But I'm taking a leave. I'll be here quite a bit." James promised. Q smiled slightly.   
"No getting rid of you," She said.  
"No getting rid of me." He confirmed, cracking a smile of his own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I may or may not have made this story around 10 times more depressing. Really sorry about that. I really don't like crushing people's hearts.


	6. Life Goes On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Q earns her laptop back, and James reads.

Life goes on for everyone. Silva is put in a more stable prison and Q is made to watch it from her laptop at all times. It is decided that Moneypenny will interrogate him when the time is right. Q is finally given her laptop back, having not snapped at a doctor in a day. Jame stays with her and reads, of all things, which throws Q off.   
"You read?" She asks on evening, when both are busying themselves with their own specific tasks, Q monitoring Silva's movements while simultaneously coding for Q-branch.   
"I'm not completely incompetent." James said, glancing at her from above his reading glasses, which Q didn't know she owned.   
"I didn't mean that, it's just," She started, shaking her head as she tried to find the right way to phrase it. "I just never pictured you someone who read." She said finally.   
"Not many people do." He said, turning a page in his awful-looking novel. It had a lion on the cover, and it took her but a moment to realize he was reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. She couldn't help but give a small smile, looking back at her laptop before he could pick up on it, but he does anyways.   
"What are you smiling at?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.   
"Nothing."   
"Tell me."   
"It's just, I used to love that book." Q admitted, smiling as she remembered sitting out during recess under the big oak tree in primary school, reading and rereading the bok.   
James smiled. "Didn't think you'd be one for fiction." He commented.  
"It's my favorite." She replied, her long fingers typing a code into her laptop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this is such a short chapter! THe next one will be long, I promise!


End file.
